HPE Races To Consensus With Blockchain-Powered Audi
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Your next car just might run on crypto. In a new partnership announced early today, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises has teamed up with Streamr, a Switzerland-based crypto startup, to create an integrated smart car platform which shares data with other vehicles over the blockchain.
The product of the partnership will be on display at New York’s Consensus 2018, an annual event for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies taking place next week. According to their press release, visitors to the Streamr pavilion will be able to see data “flowing” through a 3D Audi Q2 chassis.
The interface, designed by HP, will collect real-time data from the car’s communications “bus”, which collects hundreds of data points from the car’s sensors. That data, including fuel consumption, location, acceleration and gearing, can then be sent straight to the Streamr platform.
Hewlett-Packard is already active in the world of blockchain enterprises, having launched “blockchain as a service” to enterprise-level clients last year. “Mission Critical,” the company’s Distributed Ledger technology, is used to track and collate data produced by everything from banks to cars and jets.
“The idea of having one common, synchronized, shared view of truth is of enormous use in finance and government, in supply chain, in food,” says Ian Brooks, HPE’s head of innovation in Europe, in a webpage maintained by HPE’s blockchain lab.
“We see Blockchain use cases evolving into what we call Blockchain 3.0: the intersection of Blockchain, IoT, big data, AI and the Intelligent Edge,” said Raphael Davison, Worldwide Director for Blockchain at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “Our partnership with companies like Streamr helps us bring this future closer to a reality.”
The demonstration is “a pivotal moment in our race to innovate,” said Streamr CEO Henri Pikhala. “As we welcome the future of cities and towns, real-time data is required to drive smart cities forward.”
Pikhala added that the demonstration “not only solves some of the challenges associated with smart cities, it also proposes a solution to the question of data ownership. We want to ensure that when drivers get in their car and produce valuable data, no one is reaping the rewards but them. “
Streamr is one of many new faces in Zug, the alpine blockchain-cryptopia which has come to be regarded as Switzerland’s answer to Silicon Valley. The company says that its “real-time data marketplace will allow users to trade information over (Streamr’s) peer-to-peer data network.”
“Currently the valuable data that you produce is at the mercy of large corporations,” Streamr says on its website.”In the Streamr network, it’s yours to sell and use as you wish.”
The website further elaborates on the possibilities of smart cars. They “need data from other machines, such as traffic congestion information from other cars, electricity prices on nearby charging stations, weather forecasts, and so on.”
By allowing vehicles to share data on the Streamr platform, “the car can autonomously get the data it needs and pay for it. Streamr provides a single interface for real-time data delivery and payment, making data streams tradeable using the DATAcoin token.”
Streamr raised $30 million in its ICO last year.
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